Demons
Demons are humanoid creatures with a few distinct characteristics. All of the demon race has 90℅ essence sensitivity, there's no expection to this. Demons have inborn abilities that seperate them from humans including: a rage state which buffs their overall strength, muscle fibers that are fused into their black colored bones which give them partial control over their bone structure. Since they have less sensitivity to essence than humans, they can't teleport and are ruled by patriarchy. I hope Jess didn't lie about any of this.
Part [of] Jess
I've always liked the color red. It always brought happiness to me. Fall was my favorite season because I could see red leaves. It was also the color of my essence. I didn't associate red with bad things. Not once. That means the puddle my family laid in was not something bad. So, they should wake up right?
I went around my village which I had spent my whole life in. A measly ten but, still a whole. I guessed there was a festival as the whole village was lit with red lights. None of my neighbors seemed to want to open their doors. I got a bit worried, I couldn't leave my family sleeping on the red snow. Snow? I think it snowed a few days ago. When one of my neighbors finally opened their door I saw someone I had never seen. It was a woman who didn't have any horns and was covered in red. Must be a good person then, I thought.
"Hello! Can you please come with me? I can't wake my family up." I said.
The woman in red looked at me before nodding. I went ahead of her, trying to lead her to my house. Upon arriving, I turned towards her to show my family on the ground. Once I looked at her in the eye, I felt something cold no, warm?? on my neck followed by a warm flow of blood. I looked down while trying to gasp for air. Wait, blood... is red? Blood is red. Blood is red. Blood is red. BLOOD IS RED. ฿ⱠØØĐ ł₴ ⱤɆĐ.
It was bumpy. I couldn't sleep well. The other children and adults next to me were looking at me. Why? A woman who looked to be in her thirties asked me a question.
"Are you... okay?"
I opened my mouth to speak.
"..."
Huh? Can't I hear? I opened my mouth once again.
"."
I can't hear. I started getting worried, I didn't want to be deaf, how else would I hear my mom's voice? I heard the woman though. So I'm not deaf. Wait, I couldn't talk not hear. Where was I in the first place? It kept bobbing up and down.
"We're going somewhere child." Said a guy also in his thirties. Did he read my mind?
"You're really sure you're okay right? I saw you... blacking out back in the village." asked the woman again.
I nodded this time knowing I couldn't speak. Why though? I carefully touched my neck, it had something dry on it. I slowly scratched it off to not hurt myself. There was now something stuck in between my nails. Something red, was it blood? Blood? It took me a second to remember.
The hornless woman had slashed my neck with something sharp. I held my neck, trying to stop the blood from gushing out and tossed around, trying to fill my lungs with air. It was all for nothing in the end as I felt a black curtain start covering my eyes. I'm dying...
Not yet.
A silent scream left my mouth. I knew what was happening. This was a carriage. I frantically looked around, every adult had their hands binded behind their back with some even having their eyes covered by cloth. Even children weren't safe, all of them had shackles around their wrists. Do I have one too? I did. This was no festival. They had kidnapped us. So that means my family... My family? Where are they?! Where is my family!!? I tried yelling at the people in front of the carriage but to no avail.
Only I was left in the carriage. All of the other demons had been forcibly escorted out the carriage. I knew it. I knew by the time I reached my destination all of the people I knew would be far, far away from my reach. Don't care. Can't care. I'll memorize your faces. All of you. I'll kill you. I'LL KILL YOU ALL.
The carriage came to a sudden stop. This was it. This was where I would be sold off to. A man had opened the locked door behind the carriage and forcefully dragged me out. I know your face now. I looked around me. The ones who pillaged my village were eating their meal around a campfire, singing in a language not native to Lianite. Twenty more. I spent that entire night memorizing faces and the mansion in front of me. There was also someone else. A human child. He looked confused just as I was days ago. Throughout the night, among all the talking they did I managed to pick up a few words in the common language of Lianite: Setina and America. America? So they're players.
There was a short silence as all of the faces turned towards me which included a face I recognized the most. The woman in red. She pointed at me, causing all the players to laugh. I made sure her face stayed the most clear in my mind. It had been a while since me and the other kid had been taken out of the carriage. They made us wait out in the open until the sun came back out. I'm hungry. It didn't look like they'd bring us food anytime soon. I looked at all the empty carriages around me. There were tents set all around them while they left us OUT IN THE OPEN? A woman coming out of a tent took my attention. I made sure to memorise her face even before she approached us. The woman grabbed both me and the other kid by our shackled wrists, tying a rope to the middle of the shackle before dragging us both into the huge mansion I saw last night.
Inside the mansion was the most luxurious place I ever saw while also feeling the most lifeless. The woman took us somewhere upstairs and into a dark room. We waited there for a long while until she came back. This time there was a woman in luxurious clothing.
"As you can see my duchess, two kids who have tough outer shells, just as you requested. One survived a cut to the neck and the other a fire. Do as you will with them. Nice making business with you." Said the player before leaving the side of the duchess.
The noble woman came near me, squeezing my cheek before talking.
"So what's your name little one?"
"She can't talk." Said the child next to me. His head had dropped making his face impossible to see.
How does he know that? I thought to myself. The duchess walked over to the other kid.
"So then, what's your name?"
"Zoen." He whispered.
"I see little Zoen. I'll take your shackles off now alright? I want you two to be comfortable near me."
And she did. After so long, the shackles binding my hands had been unlocked. I looked up to do my usual memorising sequence. The position of her eyes, her head, nose and mouth shapes. Then moved onto her color pallette. Grayish skin, red hair, red eyes, dark gray lipstick, light gray blush. That can't be right. I thought. Looking at Zoen. He also had two colors to him along with dark red stains on his clothes. That was the day I realised. The world had lost its color.
The noble woman told us to come with her which we did. She showed us an empty room with two cheap looking beds in the corners. I immediately went and laid head down on the closest one. Days had passed since I felt something remotely soft.
The duchess smiled,
"Let me get you both something to satiate your hunger and thirst."
She left after that, leaving us alone. Zoen sat next to me in the bed. Seems like he wants to talk.
"Sorry for talking for on your behalf. It seemed to me like you didn't want to speak."
I turned my head around a bit, pointed at my mouth and shook my head.
"Oh so you really can't? How can we talk then?"
Seems like he won't let me sleep in peace. I got back up, sat next to him and lifted my fingers one by one as if I was counting something.
"Oh I see! So you want me to recite the alphabet then stop when you signal me until a word forms?"
I looked at him in confusion. I didn't say any of that. I just tried asking his age. But his idea was actually pretty smart. He looked to be energetic all of a sudden after his new discovery.
"Here I go then! A B C D E F G..."
"Y.O.U.A.G.E. Me? I'm nine! You?"
I lifted ten fingers. It was probably right, demons didn't really keep track of their birthdays.
"So then what's your name? A B C-"
I looked away from Zoen, making him stop reciting the alphabet.
"You don't want to say it? Okay... I'm Zoen, you probably heard it in the room though. I think we'll be seeing eachother a lot so I wanted to learn what to call you."
I had one question wandering around my head. How can he be this energetic if he had a similar fate as mine? I shooed him off my bed to sleep, I was already tired of this alphabet word thing. The world lost both the white and red color once as I started drifting asleep.
I was woken up by gentle hands the next day. The duchess was back, she had some food and water on a tray. The tray was swept clean by me in the blink of an eye. At last, a decent meal. The noble lady smiled at me, rubbed my cheek and left. I don't trust her. I still remember what that player told her. 'Just as you requested...' But why?
"Good morning."
Zoen was already staring at me when I turned to him.
"I came up with another solution, how about we give each hand sign a letter? Maybe we could also give some commonly used words to make your job easier?"
This boy was not going to give up, I could feel it. He was kind, way too kind to survive. He needed me to protect him. I exhaled as a replacement for sighing before nodding. His eyes lit up with excitement as he started writing the common alphabet with hand signs next to them on a paper. I knew what my first question would be.
"W.h.e.r.e d.i.d y.o.u g.e.t t.h.e.m?" He said out loud, pouring my hand signs into words. "Oh I asked the duchess yesterday when you slept, I've been trying to come up with a way to talk to you."
Too kind. I brought my hands up again.
"J.e.s.s? Is that your name? Nice to meet you Jess!"
Jess was not my name. As much as I can remember, one of the players that kidnapped me had used it as some sort of insult in their native language.
"You have a last name too right Jess?" He asked. "N.o. well, then I won't have one too. It doesn't mean anything anymore anyway."
Oh, I forgot, we're both in the same situation. I put my hands up one last time.
"L.e.t.s g.e.t a.l.o.n.g. Yup, let's do!"
I was living a peaceful life in this mansion with my new friend. We were spending days just exchanging words, working on my very own sign language. It wasn't perfect, sure but I could talk again. We made as much progress as we could in three days. Of course the duchess would visit us regularly to check up on us. She still didn't seem like a good person. The red on her eyes and hair were making me nervous. But maybe, just maybe, I could live here in peace with Zoen.
Not yet.
It was my second time hearing it. A bit ironic as I learned that we had been sold off to some people the day after hearing it. I knew it, that noble was up to no good.
They had tied our eyes and made us walk a long distance. I held the hand of my friend as they hadn't put shackles on our hands this time around. A moment later, our blindfolds had been lifted, revealing a huge mess of light. I rubbed my eyes to get rid of it immediately and once I could open my eyes I was met with the sight of something I've never seen before. A ship. Not just any ship. An enormous pirate ship.